November search engine market share revealed

In November 2012, Google.com and Google.co.uk received a combined total of 91.06 per cent of UK search volume. This is down slightly by 0.04 per cent compared to its October 2012 search engine market share, and the lowest it has been since July. Conversely, Bing is up by 0.14 to 4.73 per cent of UK search volume, while Yahoo is down to 2.27 per cent, and Ask dips to 0.47. This continues trends that have been ongoing for several months, with Bing looking set to hit 5 per cent in the near future.

Meanwhile, StatCounter's data for UK mobile searches shows Google is still a clear winner with 96.16 per cent of volume, and Bing at just 0.42 per cent. Of course, Google is the default search engine for a large number of popular smartphones and tablets, while Windows devices are yet to truly take off.

Hijacked searches

StatCounter claims that 0.48 per cent of UK searches used Conduit in November 2012, making it the 4th most popular search engine last month. However, it seems search.conduit.com in fact becomes the default browser homepage and search box when users download certain programmes and software, and is difficult to uninstall. As a result, many are accusing Conduit of 'hijacking' their browser.

Below are the UK search engine market share stats for November 2012, using data from StatCounter Global Stats: